Page 60 of Omega’s Forward

I don’t require anything from you — no money, no involvement — and nothing changes with the club. I’m telling you because you have the right to hear it from me and not from anyone else. If you want to be involved, then let me know, but it is not necessary if you do not want to be. I am happy to keep everything under the radar. Press and team do not need to know.

E.

I press send before I can redraft it, and then I sit very still at my own kitchen counter, one hand over my stomach, my heart going like I ran up all six flights.

19. Brody

I see Everett’s email the moment that I wake up because even after everything, checking my phone to see if I have a message from him is still the first thing that I do every morning.

My stomach twists over when I see the sender: E. Rourke.

There’s been nothing for so long. Now he’s messaging me directly.

I open it.

Callahan,

I need to let you know that I am pregnant.

I read the rest of it. None of it goes in. I go back to the top and read it again, slower.

Pregnant. He’s pregnant, and it’s mine. Nobody has to draw me the timeline.

I’m going to be a dad.

I get out of bed and stagger into the kitchen. I need to be properly awake to deal with this.

I set the coffee machine going and listen while it begins to sputter. I sit at my kitchen table, holding the phone in both hands.

Today’s plans included a skate at eleven, video at one, steaks with the leadership group tonight to talk over Tuesday.

Now, none of that seems important. My world has been turned upside down.

A kid. A whole person, half me, half him.

I try to picture it and get nowhere. I can’t even imagine if this child is going to be a boy or a girl.

How long has he known? Weeks at least. I could get angry about that. I put it aside. I read the email again.

I don’t require anything from you — no money, no involvement — and nothing changes with the club.

Require. Like I’m a vendor he’s releasing from a contract.

If you want to be involved, then let me know, but it is not necessary if you do not want to be. I am happy to keep everything under the radar. Press and team do not need to know.

Yeah, that’s clear. The guy still doesn’t want me. He doesn’t want me for his alpha. He doesn’t want me for his alpha-daddy.

This is an obligation email.

He’s giving me an out and it’s clear he wants me to take it. No money, no involvement, no press. Nobody ever has to know I’ve got a kid on the other side of an ocean. Including, possibly, the kid.

I stand up and walk a lap of the kitchen. Past the counter where I kissed him that first time. His scent is long gone out of this house. It took months, and I know which week it finally went, because that’s the week I stopped finding reasons to walk past the guest room.

I start a reply.

I get two words in and delete them. Try again.

Everett — too familiar.